Saturday, July 14, 2007

Just so I can get through this without melting down, I'm going to run a series of Movie Minesweepers this weekend. By later tomorrow night, I should be up to speed and back ahead of the curve. Anything you think I'm missing, drop me a line.

I'm actually frightened. There's so much to get done. Deep breath... and...

- Scott Glosserman is to directPlaying House for Paramount Vantage. He has a hell of a rep to live up to so I hope this doesn't turn out to be a variant on Hammer's Child's Play.

- Saoirse Ronan has netted the Susie Salmon role in The Lovely Bones. Superb. I was very pleased with this. All major roles are now out of the bag with only the Andy Serkis announcement to come, eh?

- Ronan's current project, City of Ember, has just had a busload of new cast members sign on: Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Harry Treadaway from Brothers of the Head.

- Cheryl Hines has joined the cast of Mark Pellngton's Henry Poole Was Here alongside Luke Wilson and Radha Mitchell.

- Ingrid Law's novel Savvy has been optioned by Walden Media. No surprise there - they were behind the publishing of the book also.

- Charlize Theron has signed to star in Guillermo Ariaga's The Burning Plain.

- As I was discussing with you the other day, Spielberg is getting up close with Aaron Sorkin. The writer has been recruited to turn out three scripts for Dreamworks, the first of which will be The Trial of the Chicago 7. This drama about protestors at the '68 Democratic Convention in... yep, Chicago is likely to be directed by Spielberg himself.

- The Living Corpse is headed to cinemas - and that's not me signing off. Nope, it's news: the comicbook about a zombie with memories is to be adapted into a film. I've never read it, but apparently he spends his time trying to keep other dead folk in their graves. Selfish festering git.

- Joe McGinniss Jr's novel The Delivery Man has been optioned by Whitsett Hill Films. The story revolves around a chauffeur for a gang of teenaged hookers.

- Larry Charles mysterious, much discussed religion documentary has been snapped up by Lionsgate. They'll release it across the US in the spring.

And that's everything from Variety at the moment, so this feels like a natural break. I'm going to eat something sugary and lovely and then come back in a bit.